Take Two Pays for Hot Coffee

I'm sure you're aware of the controversial hidden sex minigame built into GTA: San Andreas, and I'm also sure that most of you couldn't have cared less. Nevertheless, Take Two have finally issued monetary compensation to the blushing prudes that were offended by the inclusion of this shocking (ly tame) content.

According to the class action website, the offended gamers can receive the overwhelming sum of $5 to £35 depending on if they've still got the receipt and original disc. Which is just enough to buy your own hot coffee... or a cheap coffee machine if you're lucky.

Legendary Hacker Vows to Save PS3 Linux Support

Remember Geohot? Legendary hacker George Hotz managed to successfully hack the PS3 a month ago, and Sony are planning to remove Linux support this Thursday as a protective measure against future incursions (regardless about how well-meaning they are). Most gamers won't be affected by the move (and probably won't even notice it), but it's likely to raise the hackles of the homebrew community.

Possibly feeling guilty for the impending removal of the PS3's ability to run other operating systems, Hotz has pleaded for gamers to resist updating the firmware until he's developed a workaround.

"A note to people interested in the exploit and retaining OtherOS support, DO NOT UPDATE. When 3.21 comes out, I will look into a safe way of updating to retain OtherOS support, perhaps something like Hellcat's Recovery Flasher. I never intended to touch CFW, but if that's how you want to play...

Two things, some people seem to think CFW will enable some sort of piracy. It won't. It'll just be a custom version of 3.21 that doesn't lose OtherOS support. Hacking isn't about getting what you didn't pay for, it's about making sure you do get what you did." - George Hotz

He raises a valid point. After all, he's vowed to not enable piracy- rather, he's a supporter of the modding and homebrew community and genuinely cracks consoles for the sake of it.

What're y'all going to do? Update and play online, or hold off and save your Linux support? Do you think Hotz is a cyberspace Robin Hood or just another pirate? Let us know in the comments![Geohot via Ubergizmo]

Breach Code Thief Arrested at PAX

The attempted theft of Breach game code from Atomic Games' stall at the Penny Arcade eXpo has ended in an arrest. Apparently, the thief only wanted a copy of the game to play with his friends (rather than corporate espionage), but was subsequently apprehended by Atomic Games and PAX staff.

"This guy had only succeeded in copying about 14MB to his laptop before our staff caught him. Because of the work we do for military and intelligence organizations, we take security issues like this very seriously ... It is fortunate for him that we caught him before any of this ended up on the internet. Many of the hackers who stole Valve's Half-Life 2 code were tracked down by the FBI's Cybercrime Task Force." - Peter Tamte, Atomic Games President

Turns out that crime doesn't pay... but I'm personally more interested in what Atomic Games do for the intelligence services. They spent three years working in top secrecy for the US government developing army training sims- but intelligence organisations? Intriguing. [Joystiq]

Yeah, it's a crying shame that one of the PS3's unique selling points has to be sacrificed to a knee-jerk corporate reaction.

Unfortunately, both Sony and Microsoft have a history of clamping down hard and fast on perceived threats to both console security and software monopoly. Removing OtherOS is probably the most efficient and cost-effective way to do that.

EU Directive 1999/44/EC:
The goods must
· comply with the description given by the seller and posses the same qualities and characteristics as other similar goods
· be fit for the purpose which the consumer requires them and which was made known to the seller at the time of purchase.